The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Achillea commonly known as Yarrow, which is grown as an ornamental plant for use in the garden and landscape. The new cultivar is known botanically as Achillea millefolium and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name ‘HEARTTHROB’.
Achillea is a genus within the family Asteraceae in which the commonly referred to “flower” is botanically the inflorescence which is comprised of outer showy ray florets surrounding smaller disc florets. The inflorescences of Achillea are borne in clusters or corymbs.
‘HEARTTHROB’ arose and was selected from an ongoing breeding program which is conducted by the inventor at the inventor's nursery in Penhow, Wales, United Kingdom. The breeding program commenced in 2014 with the aim of developing new and improved commercial varieties of Achillea. Each year's breeding cycle consists of controlled pollination between chosen male and female parents including unnamed and unreleased seedlings retained from previous breeding cycles. Seed from each year's cycle is harvested and sown in the fall, and new seedlings are raised and evaluated in the following summer.
‘HEARTTHROB’ is a seedling selection that resulted from the controlled pollination in 2015 of a single plant of the inventor's proprietary Achillea seedling code AC 89 (unreleased and unpatented) as the female parent, using pollen from a single plant of the inventor's proprietary Achillea seedling code AC 201 (unreleased and unpatented) as the male parent. The inventor selected ‘HEARTTHROB’ in 2016 for its combination of large and colorfast bright red blooms with contrasting yellow “eyes” and which are borne on strong stems, and blue-green fern-like foliage.
‘HEARTTHROB’ was first asexually propagated by the inventor in Penhow, Wales, United Kingdom in 2016 using the method of shoot tip cuttings. Since that time under careful observation ‘HEARTTHROB’ has been determined uniform, stable and true to type in subsequent generations of asexual propagation.